Needs assessment of home care services for the aged in the community

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Based on individual data of dependent aged in Kitakyushu City and a neighboring community (133 home cases and 116 institutionalized cases ; total 249 cases), model care plans were constructed according to type of family and dependency level. By using the data of Kitakyushu and the estimation of Ministry of Welfare and Health, the number of aged people for each category was estimated for Kitakyushu City. Needs assessment of home care services for the aged in Kitakyushu City was tried by combining these two estimations. The estimation has suggested that more home care services are required in order to satisfy the needs of community (30% plus for home help service, 100% plus for home nursing service, and 500% plus for day service, even though the utilization level is 40% of the estimation). Another important consideration is that needs for the services are heavily influenced by the familial condition.According to the result of chronological assessment of change in dependency level among the 49 dependent aged who have been using the home help service and day care service organized by a Community Council of Social Welfare (January 1997 to January 2000), a slight worsening of dependency-level was observed among the investigated aged people (30% for moving, 10% for mental level. As an associate factor of worsening of dependency level, bone and joint was detected. It is suggested that home care services should be useful for the prevention of worsening of dependency level of the frail aged.